Cardinal Blasts New Mass. Abortion Clinic Law

The head of the Roman Catholic church in Boston is criticizing state lawmakers for acting "with unseemly haste" to tighten security around abortion clinics.

Gov. Deval Patrick signed the bill into law on Thursday, just over a month after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a 2007 state law that established a protest-free 35-foot "buffer zone" around the entrances to abortion clinics.

The House and Senate on Tuesday gave final approval to the bill that gives police more powers to disperse protesters gathering around abortion clinic entrances. Those activists will have to stay at least 25 feet from the clinic's entrances for up to eight hours.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley says he hopes the judiciary "will once again correct what I regard as an unjust limitation on free speech in Massachusetts about a fundamental moral and human issue."